
should be seen, those who would escape must make no delay. Throughout the
land of Judea, as well as in Jerusalem itself, the signal for flight must be
immediately obeyed. . . . They must not hesitate a moment, lest they be
involved in-the general destruction."—"The
Great Controversy,"
p. 26.
10.
How were those who obeyed this injunction rewarded?
ANSWER.—"Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem,
Christ had given His disciples warning, and all'who believed His words watched
for the promised sign. . . . After the Romans under Cestius had surrounded
the city, they unexpectedly abandoned the siege when everything seemed
favorable for an immediate attack. The besieged, despairing of successful
resistance, were on the point of surrender, when the Roman general withdrew
his forces without the least apparent reason. . . . Events were so overruled
that neither Jews nor Romans should hinder the flight of the Christians."
—Id.,
p. 30.
NOTE.—Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was present at the siege of
Jerusalem, says that Cestius "recalled his soldiers from the place, and by
despairing of any expectation of taking it, without having received any dis-
grace, he retired from the city, without any reason in the world."—"Wars
of
the Jews,"
book 2, chap. 19, par. 5-7.
11.
To what place did the Christians go after leaving Jerusalem?
ANswER.—Josephus says: "After this calamity had befallen Cestius, many
of the most eminent of the Jews swam away from the city, as from a ship
when it was going to sink."—Id., chap. 20, par. 1. And the church historian
Eusebius says: "The whole body, however, of the church at Jerusalem, having
been commanded by a divine revelation, given to men of approved, piety there
before the war, removed from the city, and dwelt at a certain town beyond
the Jordan, called
Pella."—"Ecclesiastical History,"
book 3, chap. 5.
12.
How does Jesus further describe the terrible judgments that
should fall upon the city of Jerusalem, and upon the Jewish nation?
Luke 21:23, 24.
NOTE.—"Terrible were the calamities that fell upon Jerusalem when the
siege was resumed by Titus. . . . Thousands perished from famine and pesti-
lence. Natural affection seemed to have been destroyed. Husbands robbed
their wives, and wives their husbands. Children would be seen snatching the
food from the mouths of their aged parents. . . . The Roman leaders en-
deavored to strike terror to the Jews, and thus cause them to surrender. Those
prisoners who resisted when taken, were scourged, tortured, and crucified before
the walls of the city. Hundreds were daily put to death in this manner,
and the dreadful work continued until, along the valley of Jehoshaphat and
at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great numbers that there was scarcely
room to move among them. So terribly was visited that awful imprecation
uttered before the judgment seat of Pilate: 'His blood be on us, and on our
children.'
"—"The Great Controversy,"
pp. 31-33.
"Both the city and the temple were razed to their foundations, and the
ground upon which the holy house had stood was 'plowed like a field.' In the
sierre and the slaughter that followed, more than a million of the people
perished ; the survivors were carried away as captives, sold as slaves, dragged
to Rome to grace the conqueror's triumph, thrown to wild beasts in the
amphitheaters, or scattered as homeless wanderers throughout the earth."—
Id.,
p. 35, 36.
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